Woman’s burned body was ‘discarded’ near dumpster in 1987, TN cops say. Now she’s ID’d

A passerby in 1987 found a woman’s burned body next to a dumpster, Tennessee officials said.

Now 36 years later, she’s been identified.

Betty Lou Wisley, 51, was living in or near Knox County, Tennessee, at the time of her death, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a Nov. 30 news release.

Investigators said her body “had been burned after her death and discarded beside the dumpster” in neighboring Roane County, but they couldn’t identify her at the time, and she became a Jane Doe.

She was entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. But for years, there were no developments, officials said.

This April, the Unidentified Human Remains DNA Initiative submitted a sample of her remains to Othram Inc. in Texas for genealogical DNA testing, according to the TBI.

Scientists at Othram identified potential relatives, and one family member submitted a DNA standard for comparison in October.

With the sample, the forensics company was able to determine the remains belonged to Wisley, who is originally from Clinton, Missouri.

The Roane County Sheriff’s Office and the TBI are now asking the public for help figuring out what led up to her death.

Roane County is about 45 miles southwest of Knoxville.

This story was originally published November 30, 2023 at 11:12 AM with the headline "Woman’s burned body was ‘discarded’ near dumpster in 1987, TN cops say. Now she’s ID’d."